Roseville Girls Soccer Still in Growing Season

In most of the state, late September is harvest time. But for the Roseville High School girls soccer team, it's still the growing season.

“We're a really young team, and we're learning how to play together,” Roseville coach Dave Alm said Tuesday following Roseville's 2-1 loss to Woodbury. “The regular season is the first season for us, when we're learning to play the game. The next season will be sectionals.”

While the Raiders felt good after playing the Royals to a draw for the first 72 minutes, the game served as a splash of cold water in the face for Woodbury, which moved up a spot to No. 6 in the most recent state coaches' poll.

“It was a little too close for comfort,” Royals co-head coach Bill Ebertz said. “We got a little bit of a wake-up call when they got that goal.”

The Royals struck first in the Suburban East Conference match, with Andrea Lenartz scoring in the 19^th minute to make it 1-0.

But the Raiders got even in the 68^th minute when Grace Wilson bent in a free kick from 30 yards out. The ball snuck in just under the crossbar to tie the game at 1-1.

Woodbury rose to the challenge, however, as Madison Nelson scored her team-high eighth goal of the season on a counterattack in the 72^nd minute.

“Nobody's an easy (opponent). You can't take anybody lightly; we proved that today,” Ebertz said. “It's a tough conference. Even the teams on the bottom come out ready to play every game.”

Raiders captain Alison Baumgartner said an upset would have been nice but …

“For us to play a game like that against Woodbury, that was a pretty awesome game,” Baumgartner said. “We hoped to win, but when you play hard, the result is the result.”

Both teams return to action Thursday. The Royals (10-3 overall, 6-0 Suburban East) host White Bear Lake, while the Raiders (4-7 overall, 1-5 Suburban East) play at Forest Lake on Thursday.